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November 15, 2012

In The Cranky Fitness Laboratory

Would you like to know some of the exciting develoments now taking place in The Cranky Fitness Laboratory? (Which I feel should be pronounced la-BOR-a-tory, the way it is in old horror movies; it's that kind of place).

The Cranky Fitness Laboratory is situated on the campus of Frittering-Dawdling University, should you ever care to visit. The lab's Research Director, Professor Crabby McSlacker, will be happy to show you around! However, be sure to call in advance, because Professor McSlacker is a busy little nutball. She is always experimenting and tinkering and inventing things. Her research interests include exercise physiology, nutrition, psychology, and, depending on how piggy she's been lately, weight loss.

Traditional health and psychological research is not just problematic because it keeps changing its mind all the time. (Speaking of which, are multivitamins good for you or bad for you this week? I can't remember).

The real problem is that scientific research is too picky and too boring and it takes forever! Using the old fashioned scientific method, you are supposed to measure the impact of one variable at a time and hold everything else constant.

Suppose you want to find out whether drinking the blood of virgins will really reverse the aging process. Well, then you wouldn't go try those resveratrol capsules you've been curious about at exactly the same time, or start sleeping with that new hot Cardio Kick Boxing instructor at the gym.

Why not? Because then if you looked in the mirror and your wrinkles had all disappeared, how would you know if it was due to the virgin blood or the resveratrol or the martial arts inspired whoopee? Under the traditional method, you'd have to hold off on the resveratrol and roundhousing until you knew exactly what the deal was with the virgin blood.

But let's say you are a neurotic health nut with an internet connection. Then not only are there your own weird inventions to test, there are also hundreds of promising theories, shortcuts, supplements, routines, diets, visualizations, workouts, gadgets and hacks to tempt you every day.

If your goals are, for example, (1) to find the most delicious and healthy food items you can eat all day long in unlimited portions; (2) have an awesome physique capable of incredible feats of strength and endurance; (3) be astonishingly productive yet still blissfully happy; and (4) live forever, it would take approximately 370,000 years using traditional scientific methodology to discover the best ways to do all this.

But see the problem? You'd be dead first. And being dead would significantly compromise your ability to enjoy your success.

You just do everything that sounds hopeful all at once. Wait a few days, and then try to get a vague sense of whether things are getting better or worse. Next, just leap to whatever conclusions make you the happiest! Then stop doing anything you don't like doing much, and keep doing the things you like.

Doesn't that sound like more fun?

Okay, I just remembered I promised you a tour of the lab, but since there are dozens and dozens of experiments going on at any one time, I'll just highlight two of them.

The "Slog" is a Shoe that has been cleverly hacked to be more like a Clog. (Shoe + Clog = Slog!). And yeah, this just means I take the shoestrings out of the top couple sets of holes and lace up at midfoot rather than at the ankle. This allows my heel to rise out of the shoe a bit as I shift my weight forward, and magically induces my lazy feet and calf muscles to function more actively instead of behaving like they are made of cement.

(As I mentioned in that post, with my plantar fasciitis issues, there's no way in hell I'm going to give up cushioning in my shoes).

The Hoist Roc It Mini-Review:

So I returned to San Diego a couple weeks ago to discover that my gym had apparently adopted the theory that stretching is unnecessary. They virtually eliminated the stretching area while I was gone, but they did ad some new gadgets, including a whole circuit of Hoist "Roc-It" machines.

These use "dynamic adjustment," so your whole body moves as you complete the exercise. According to the Hoist people, "the ROC-IT line embodies a unique training experience that achieves the unrestricted joint movement and core activating benefits of functional training coupled with the stabilizing benefits of machine-based equipment."

This sounded like a nice way to pretend I was doing functional fitness like the cool people do, while still getting to be a mindless robot moving from machine to machine, hooray! And a great new opportunity for off-site experimentation.

Of course I went roaming around web in search of Hoist "Roc-It" reviews, to see what experts thought about this technology before I invested time with it myself... but didn't find much not actually written by the Hoist folks themselves. Sensing a search engine opportunity to exploit, here is the Cranky Fitness quick and dirty version.

Hoist "Roc-It" review:

Pro: These are slightly more fun that your average isolation-type weight machine. At least until the novelty wears off and you realize it's just a boring-ass strength training workout, not an actual ride.

Pro: They do seem to give you the ability to target a particular muscle and make it hurt like hell the next day, while at the same time using some core muscles, although not enough so you really notice it much.

Con: They don't provide the lateral instability of a free weight, so you aren't getting better at the sort of stabilizing and balancing required to lift physical objects in the non-gym universe, where objects are not all helpfully attached to big machines.

Con: The handles seem built for big giant Man-Hands, turning the row machine, for example, into a hand/forearm workout, which is not actually what I was looking to accomplish.

Con: The machines do not start administering electric shocks to people who hog them for ages; this is a feature they really need to look into.

But anyway, here's another related invention, which like most of my inventions, no doubt already exists under some other name but I'm too lazy to google.

LazoMatic Gym Machine Protocol:

Note: This works on all gym strength training machines, not just the Hoist.

The problem is that if you're isolating particular muscles, there are quite a few of these machines you need to get to. And in my case, I still do my own little weird functional fitness medicine ball workout after I'm done with the machines, so the thought of doing multiple sets on each one makes me suicidal.

The alternative to multiple sets? The Super-Sucky-Set!

I do one set on each machine. However, I start with a weight so heavy I can only manage it for a rep or two. Then, without stopping, I move the little pin thingy down one notch for another few reps, till I can't eke out any more, and so on, until I've done 12 Extremely Unpleasant repetitions if it's an arm exercise, or 15 Extremely Unpleasant Reps if it's a leg machine. I figure I'd only be getting that many maximully awful reps in 3 conventional sets, right? And anyone who actually knows something about exercise physiology may want to pop into the comments and tell me that this is stupid.

The hardest part about this Super-Sucky-Set method? It's not moving the pin back to the highest weight when done, thus allowing the person who follows you to think the very lowest weight was the one you used the entire time. Seriously, for someone who claims I don't give a crap what others think of me in the gym, that's the hardest freakin' part.

So do you guys do your own health, nutrition, and fitness experiments and tinker around with different approaches? Are you the least bit scientific about it?

Crabby that wasn't nice, I'm still feeling bruised from last weeks election and since the left is still blaming Bush after 4 years of Obama being in office, I think I'm entitled to being a little bruised still after only a week. Give a girl a hug would you please. LOL

Hey Starving Bitch,Ya know, you're right! Um, so to speak. That was indeed kind of a cheap shot and I'll take it down. I guess I just assume anyone who puts up with my viewpoint is most likely a flaming liberal which is clearly not the case! Will take Romney campaign reference down, and thanks for letting me know, I'd hate to lose an awesome blogpal like you over silly politics!

OMG YOU DID NOT HAVE TO DO THAT! If I didn't have flaming liberal friends I wouldn't have too many friends at all. Plus I'm not really a republican I'm more libertarian, you know, leave me the hell alone, and stay out of everyones bedroom. I was just teasing you. Please do not take it down and I would NEVER not be your blogpal over something so silly.

SB, actually I had second thoughts before I posted but couldn't resist! It really was an error in judgement. I have libertarian leanings myself as well as a big mouth, and I value ALL my readers and blogpals whatever their leanings.

I really do appreciate you teasing me about it because it's easy to get mired in one's own perspective. I'm very much a Work In Progress is all I can say!

Drop sets are torture. :) SB mentioned you are on the Cape in the summer. I'm in Plymouth (America's Hometown; perhaps you've heard of it? ;-) Ha!) and LOVE walking around Ptown. So does my extremely handsome and buff younger boyfriend. He gets all the attention and I get all the laughs. ;)

Somehow I'm not shocked I didn't invent them, but weirdly enough have never actually run across anyone telling me to do them.

And Plymouth, you're the ones who stole our Mayflower pilgrims! Hey perhaps we'll see this coming summer? And yeah, know what you mean about the perils of bringing cute buff dudes into Ptown; they are QUITE popular there.

My previous trainer used to have me do them for curls every now & then. Hey, I can't help it if the Standisheses and Aldenseses decided to head North a few miles....and as for Ptown, when we've been crawling along Commercial Street toward the parking lot with the windows open, guys have actually stepped off the sidewalk and approached the car to get a look at him. I completely understand their interest.

Winging it seems to be as dependable as the info we get on the internets -- might as well play guinea pig. I use it to justify my obsession with trying everything new that comes along. By the way, leaving the pin on the highest weight gives you street cred. Just sayin.

OH YES, we have the Hoist machines. I have used them for over a couple years now BUT as a way to mix it up. I don't do them a lot but a couple of them are pretty cool & others I am not thrilled with BUT there is always a way to make a workout out of anything! ;)

My experiments include finding what works right for me & mixing it up as I go along... listening to the bod! :)

In lieu of hoist machines I built a stone wall in my yard. Slept like a baby, felt justified drinking like a fish post work and my arms! Whoa baby. Of course I had what is commonly called tennis elbow for a couple months post wall because I have no "OFF" button.

GO TO THE DANG DOC FOR YOUR FEET! or try the teva running sandal. Closed toe w/ sandal back. I lived in the keys (FL) a while back and unbelievable as it may seem, was a runner. I did not have your problem, but those sandals acted much like what you are trying to fashion. I think.

Side comment - I have received over a dozen emails from friends about a cola that blocks fat that you eat. Apparently my notion of living anonymously in my fat oblivion has been obliterated. Please pass the Japanese cola and an unlimited amount of the new deep dish costco pizza. Bastards!

I hope you are using some Vasoline on your feet with those shoes of yours!

I've never seen those machines, but we do have a set of machines at my fitness center that add a 40% increase in the negative part of the movement. There are only two gyms that have them at this point, and a research project is being done at ours by Ellington Dardon. I like them! You do them once a week, one set to failure.

I am not scientific about it at all. I am my own best guinea pig though! So many programs, plans, ways-of-doing things, are out there! ALL talk a great talk! I've been a sucker and bought into so many weight loss ideals. In the end it always comes back to the same old boring diet and exercise all in moderation, thing. What's the fun in that??? :D btw, thanks for stopping by my blog too. I am honored! hehehehe And you are influencing my writing too. I love your style. It makes me feel freer to be silly-serious on mine as well.

Hey Sherri, I wouldn't call it being a "sucker..." well, ok, maybe it is but we've all been there, and it's hard not to engage in a little wishful thinking around this stuff. And thanks so much for the compliment! I love to think of Cranky Fitness spreading more silliness into the blogosphere so glad you're playing with it too!